Mason Padilla bested 500 other teens with his winning hairstyle, which he coined "The West Coast Wave." He has grown out his 20inch, curly, lofty mullet for the past four years and has competed the past three, earning a top-five and top-10 finish. But this year the esteemed hairdo of his own design, brought to life at Rick's Sundale Barbershop in Fremont, earned the eighth grader a championship belt.
"I just thought it was a cool haircut," Mason said. "It makes me feel good." It didn't always, though.
In 2019, after Mason watched the cult comedy movie "Joe Dirt" with his three brothers, he began plotting a climb to the top. His inspiration came in an explosive scene where the mullet-wearing Dirt, played by David Spade, sets off a whole lot of fireworks. In between school, playing baseball and basketball, wrestling, and riding dirt bikes, Mason started to grow his luxurious hair.
But after he began sporting the mullet, Mason was bullied by some of his peers at school over it, his mother Michelle Padilla said. Some classmates "were calling him a girl" or said he "had a rat's tail" on his head, she said. Upset, he abandoned it.
"The negativity really took its toll on him, and he made the decision to shave his head," Michelle Padilla said. Eventually, however, after some soul searching and support from his family, he decided to make a major comeback. "Soon after, he regretted it," his mother said.
"And then when COVID and the pandemic happened, he just seized the opportunity for .